The death on 25 February of Victor Watson

03 March 2015

Past Master Tom Hempenstall draws our attention to the death on 25 February of Victor Watson. Mr Watson was not a Stationer but many members will have known, or known of, him and there can be almost no-one who has not played Monopoly which must be Waddington's (the family firm) most enduring product.

However, originally, John Waddington Printing Group printed playbills, posters and programmes. It broadened its product range to cover playing cards in the 1920s and then bought the non-US rights to Monopoly! As a boy Victor Watson used to help make the little houses on Saturdays. Other board game success followed with Cluedo, Scoop! and Sorry and yet it was the commercial printing contracts that provided the greater proportion of the company's profits. Victor served in the Royal Engineers, studied at Cambridge University and then started right at the bottom of Waddingtons working his way to the top and retiring in 1993. A year later Hasbro bought the games division and moved it to London. Victor's obituary has appeared in the Times of 3 March and in the Yorkshire Post as well as in other media. It is obvious that he was a larger-than-life character who, as well as working hard for his company, contributed hugely to Yorkshire and to culture.